BICOM

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey hosted his Israeli counterpart, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz at the Pentagon yesterday for talks on regional security and bilateral cooperation.

Gantz is on a week-long visit to the United States and Canada prior to stepping down from his position next month and handing over to his successor Gadi Eizenkot. The two military chiefs met for more than an hour and then continued discussions over a working lunch. Speaking to reporters, Dempsey praised Gantz and hailed the close ties between the two countries. He said, “I deeply respect his [Gantz’s] leadership of the Israel Defence Forces and deeply value our partnership with the Israel Defence Forces.”

Gantz meanwhile urged continued determination to fight terrorism, saying, “I believe the world, led by the United States, must continue to face it, to fight it, and to try to shape a better future.” He also addressed the acceptance of the Palestinian Authority’s application to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was confirmed this week. Gantz commented, “It is an unnecessary, unilateral step by the Palestinians.” He said that he is not worried about the prospect of war crimes prosecutions against Israelis, commenting, “We do huge effort to prevent civilian causalities as much as we can, yet we still have to defend our own population.”

Gantz’s assessment of Israeli measures was strongly supported by Dempsey himself during a November speech in New York, when he addressed Israeli military actions during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza over the summer. Dempsey commented at the time, “I actually do think that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties.” Listing some of the measures taken by Israel during the conflict, including dropping leaflets to forewarn of operations and firing non-lethal warning shots in advance, Dempsey said, “they did some extraordinary things to try and limit civilian casualties, to include … making it known that they were going to destroy a particular structure.”